Tree frogs for sale

May 23, 2015 by
After hanging out at the sandbox with our neighborhood friends one day this week, we walked back to our house with Parker who somehow caught a frog in our yard!

Nice job, Parker!

Before either Phi or I could protest, Jake put the little frog in a mason jar for Parker to take home. Not meaning to shove a new pet onto them, we thought maybe they would let it go after a bit, but later that night, I got a text saying Parker and Michael had come to an agreement that they would be responsible for taking care of it. A frog habitat, temperature controller, and a bag of live crickets later, their new frog was there to stay. Parker was ecstatic… we are sorry, Phi!

Meet Diego the Tree Frog!  

Diego’s new luxury condo:

         

While Parker was carrying his new pet home, he ran into some of the neighbors who immediately came over to see if they could find frogs too. We usually have a bunch hiding in the fountain or in the palm trees, but we didn’t have any luck after Parker made his find. However, we are still getting inquiries from neighbors and friends who have heard about Parker’s new pet and want frogs. I’m thinking we’ll start selling them $10 a pop! S and A will be the new managers of our reptile business.

We’ve got a two for one deal on twins right now too. 

Lots of love,

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The art of face painting

May 22, 2015 by
If there’s one thing that might rival my love of Amazon, it’s subscription boxes. I usually unsubscribe after trying new ones for a month or two, but there are a couple to which we keep resubscribing and really look forward to getting. 
One of our favorites is the Kiwi Crate box, which contains little arts and crafts centered around some kind of theme. It’s usually only enough to occupy one afternoon, but just the fact that everything comes directly to me and I don’t have to search around the house, the store or Pinterest for craft ideas is completely worth it in my book.
We received a Kiwi Crate today filled with paint, which was supposed to be stenciled on some wooden blocks. The girls had other ideas…

Mistake number one was running inside for some water. Mistake number two was leaving them with the paint. It was obviously too much of a temptation to NOT start painting each other.  

I was actually pretty impressed with the quality of Amelia’s artistry on her sister– future face painter? 

Amelia just looked like the Joker, compliments of Samantha. 

The girls were quite pleased with themselves and erupted into uncontrollable giggles when they saw my face. I’m sure it was exactly the kind of reaction they were going for. 

Very little paint ended up on the actual blocks, but if the point was to explore art, we succeeded.
Lots of love, 

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A tale of two hair cuts

May 21, 2015 by
This week, Samantha and Amelia kept complaining about their wild and crazy curly hair getting way out of control, so we went for a quick trim. We had a 50% non-screaming rate; in other words, it was a success!

Guess who was not happy about having her lovely locks chopped?

Samantha’s I AM NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS stare. 
The last time we were here, Samantha had a great time… at first. 

 Amelia was uber-excited about sitting in the train and was super mellow, as per the usual. 

Focused and ready to go.
Amelia sat contentedly in her train last year, too. 

 Meanwhile, in Samantha’s corner…

I WANTED PLATINUM HIGHLIGHTS! AND LAYERS!
Eerily familiar. 

Can you figure out what changed between the last picture and this one? 

That’s right– a lollipop! 
It was enough to make Samantha tolerate the trim. 
At least Samantha’s self-soothing skills seem to have improved since her previous experience. 

I don’t know who was more traumatized– Samantha or the lady cutting her hair. Next time, we may just do it ourselves!

Lots of love,

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Legoland with the Aldens Part Two

May 17, 2015 by
On day two of our staycation, the girls popped out of bed raring to go. Is it ever a vacation for the parents? 
Amelia ate a hearty breakfast in preparation for a full day. 
Legoland didn’t open up until 10, so the girls played at the beach park across from our hotel for a bit. 

Singing along to their favorite nursery rhyme album (Hickory Dickory Dock makes them so hyper/excited!) on our way to “Legowan.” 
Samantha thinks it’s hilarious to wear her sunglasses upside down. 
Here we go again! This picture was actually taken at the end of the day– note the sleeping Samantha. 

While we waited for our friends, the Aldens, to meet up with us, we explained to the girls that they had a little boy named Sam. Even after she was introduced, Samantha seemed confused the whole day since they refer to him as “Sammy.”

It had been way too long since we had seen Heather, Kael and the adorable Sam and we had a great time catching up. I couldn’t believe Heather and Kael had just gotten back from Peru/Macchu Picchu literally the day before and had STILL driven down from LA to take Sam to Legoland. Their energy is inspiring!

We couldn’t get Samantha to so much as acknowledge the presence of the giant Lego man. 

All three munchkins were mesmerized walking around the Lego Miniland. It was fun watching Sam because he is obsessed with Legos, particularly with Emmet from the Lego Movie. He taught S and A all about it!

Three adorable two year olds. 
Mini Las Vegas, complete with mini Lego dolphins jumping around the pool at the Mirage. 

Mini NY. 

EVERYTHING IS AWESOME. 
Commandeering the Lego boats. 
Where to next? Methinks a ride is in order. 
Looking unimpressed during the boat ride. 

Don’t let his confused look fool you– Sam was the happiest, most excited guy the entire day! I was super impressed and we had a blast hanging out. He seemed to love everything!

I refuse to look wherever you point. 

Ok I’ll look now. 

Around the world in five minutes. 

Mt. Legomore. 

Those are some mad Lego skills. 
Next up on the agenda was a combination of two of Sam’s loves– Legos and Star Wars! He had to explain all about the Star Wars characters to S and A who were totally intrigued. 
They kept calling Chewbacca, “Big Doggy.” 
The girls’ fave was definitely R2D2. 
Sam eloquently explains the overarching themes and archetypes within Star Wars. 

Distracted by an awesome puddle. 

         

After lunch, both girls were overtired, and Samantha screamed hysterically for a good thirty minutes before finally passing out. We found a nice, loud brook to walk the stroller next to and told our friends we’d meet up with them after the girls were asleep so that we wouldn’t make our friends go deaf.

Amelia looks so peaceful when she’s asleep!
A little over an hour into her nap, Samantha woke up and decided to join Sam, who was having the time of his life building and knocking down towers in the Toddler Duplo Playland. Samantha rode the train with Jake, but was a complete zombie!

She fell back asleep in Jake’s arms shortly thereafter. 

Amelia had a really good nap and finally woke up after a few hours. She had all the fun with Sam while Samantha continued to slumber. 
Samantha missed out. 
We all thought Sam was going to pass out in excitement over meeting his hero, Emmet. So cute! Amelia was pretty indifferent.
Amelia enjoyed another boat ride with Sam while I stayed back with the snoozing Samantha. 
After the park closed, we headed over to Bricks restaurant at the Legoland hotel. All us grown ups agreed that Legoland and the restaurant were pretty underwhelming (c’mon– they can’t make the benches/trees/lamposts out of Legos, too?!), but our kids definitely seemed to love it. Watching Sam freak out at any mention of Emmet and repeat “Awesome!” was worth it alone!

Still sleeping…

I don’t know who enjoyed building with Legos more– the two year olds or the adults. After missing out on pretty much every activity that afternoon, Samantha woke up just in time to eat. 
After saying goodbye to our friends, we needed a game plan to get the girls tired out enough to fall asleep at the hotel since they had slept through a good chunk of the afternoon. We walked up and down Oceanside, mini suitcases in tow, for a bit with several people stopping in their tracks and calling out, “THE OLSON TWINS!!” as we walked past. When walking around town failed to produce any signs of slowing down, we brought out the big guns– the pool. 
Worked like a charm. Easiest bedtime in a while! Exhausted toddlers. More exhausted parents. 

The girls were devastated to go home the next morning, but we promised we’d go back sometime to check out the other 50% of the park we didn’t see… once we recover from our “vacation” that is.

Lots of love,

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